O-Ren Ishii
O-Ren Ishii '(Jap. オーレン石井) was the former assassin for the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, boss of Japanese Yakuza, and the first victim in The Bride's "Death List Five"; Her codename in the Viper Squad was ''Cottonmouth. O-Ren was portrayed by Lucy Liu, who received an MTV Movie Award in the "best villain" category in 2004. Story Early life O-Ren Ishii was born on American-Japanese military base in Tokyo. She had a tragic childhood; at the age of nine, (while hiding under the bed) she witnessed her parents' brutal death from the hands of Yakuza boss - Matsumoto and his goons. After the homicide, traumatized O-Ren swore to take revenge. Luckily for her, Matsumoto was a pedophile; so after two years of training, O-Ren got her revenge and saw her hated rival, painfully suffer while being stabbed and sadistically impaled by an eleven-year-old. After accomplishing her revenge, O-Ren killed Matsumoto's guards and escaped. Life as an assassin By her twenties she was between the top female assassins of the world (it was proved by the fact that O-Ren shot an unnamed ambassador in head, through the windshield of the moving limo). Her knowledge of the martial arts and the wielding of the samurai sword was the merit of Bill. During her time as the D.V.A.S member, O-Ren was extremely loyal to Bill. As she was coldblooded as ever, while beating up her former best friend and now a pregnant woman - Beatrix Kiddo, who left the squad and faked her death to ensure her unborn child's future. Beatrix survived, however and soon started her vendetta... Becoming a yakuza boss Bill rewarded his former protégé by financial support to her ambitions of becoming a Tokyo Yakuza boss and the leader of the Crime Council; The only man that protested O-Ren's reign to power, was Boss Tanaka, who said that O-Ren has perverted the council by being a "Chinise Jap-American half breed bitch". Seconds later, Tanaka was decapitated by O-Ren herself, who stated that she'll collect anyone's head for bringing up her Chinese or American heritage as negative. O-Ren's little criminal empire was made out of her lawyer/translator and best friend Sofie Fatale, her personal bodyguard Gogo, and clan of the elite fighters the Crazy 88, leaded by Johnny Mo. Death However, recently awoken from the four-year-old coma, Beatrix Kiddo, who swore to get her revenge on each member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, decided to start from O-Ren, (because of her notorious criminal reputation, O-Ren was the easiest target to find). Beatrix tracked her down at the restaurant - House of Blue Leaves and by injuring Sofie Fatale, challenged O-Ren on a fight; at first Beatrix was attacked by 6 members of the Crazy 88, who failed instantly; after which, Beatrix was challenged again, by Gogo; Gogo was as insane, as she was dangerous so she came the closest to killing Kiddo, but still failed. At the act of final defensive strategy, the entire Crazy 88 clan, including Johnny Mo came to protect their mistress and after several deaths from the blade of Beatrix, O-Ren calmly stepped out into the snowy garden to wait for exhausted Beatrix and after she walked inn the duel started... O-Ren attacked with first and the most painful hit, but even after all the suffering, Beatrix was the one to make the final act of the duel by ripping O-Ren's scalp off her head. Before her death, O-Ren apologized to the Bride for all the suffering she made her to go through and her apology was expected... O-Ren Ishii's last words wore (on Japanese): "That really was a Hattori Hanzō sword..." ''as she admired the fact that Beatrix had the sword from the world's best swordsmith. Personality O-Ren was patient, gallant, but at the same time extremely sadistic, brutal and explosive (if provoked) woman. Her psychopathic traits wore evolved by her childhood trauma, as she saw her parents' horrifying deaths and she was forced to stay quiet while hiding under the bed. She also was a perfectionist. Codename Bill's choice for O-Ren's viper codename, was Cottonmouth.'' This snake is native to the southeastern United States. The only semi-aquatic viper species, '''cottonmouths are strong swimmers and most often found in or near water. Before striking, the Cottonmouth bares its fangs and shows the white lining in its mouth that earns it the name "Cottonmouth", this could be explained as O-Ren being quite a show-woman when it comes to combat, utilizing stylistic, flashy moves as seen in combat with Beatrix. Physical appearance O-Ren Ishii was a slender woman with an average height, dark blue eyes and black hair; Outfits In anime flashback we see several outfits, that O-Ren wore during her youth; As a child, she wore a short dress with bright green, pink and blue stripes. After two years, she wears a blue schoolgirl uniform as an assassin, she wore a bright red latex suit, but after she left the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and become a queen of the Tokyo underworld, she wore a traditional Japanese white kimono, which characterized her personality as white is the color of perfection and O-Ren always had the craving for it... Abilities Swordsmanship skills O-Ren Ishii's specialized fighting style was the sword combat. She had a long practice as she was preparing to take revenge for her parents' death... At the age of twelve, she already was able to mercilessly decapitate a person with a katana. O-Ren preferred aikuchi sword; easily weldable but an extremely deadly weapon. Fighting skills She showcased barehanded fighting skills, while beating of Beatrix on her wedding day. she She was most likely somewhat proficient in martial arts. Gunfighting skills O-Ren was a highly capable sharpshooter, killing at least one target via sniping from a long distance. The target was killed inside a automobile and neither of the people sitting next to the target were injured. She also was able to quickly kill two thugs with a handgun in quick precision. Relationships Boss Matsumoto Boss Matsumoto was the main reason of O-Ren's path of the crime life; However, the motivation, behind why Matsumoto killed Mr. and Mrs. Ishii is still not revealed at all... Matsumoto was the most ruthless yakuza boss in Japan, but beside that, he was also a pedophile, which was the perfect circumstance for an eleven-year-old O-Ren to seduce him and eventually assassinate him, while he was trying to have sex with her; by which accomplishing her path of revenge. As much as she despised Boss Matsumoto, O-Ren's main streaming in life, was to become a yakuza boss, herself. She saw the position as the peak of the criminal power. Matsumoto was seemingly O-Ren Ishii's first victim as she was only an underage, when she killed him... Bill It is known that O-Ren was loyal to Bill, while working for the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and her loyalty was rewarded... Bill played a huge role into helping O-Ren, conqueror the criminal world of Tokyo and achieve her ambition of becoming a yakuza boss. However the relationship between two, was still mysterious. After the death of O-Ren Ishii, Beatrix Kiddo captured her right-hand woman Sofie Fatale and forced her to reveal the current locations of all of the D.V.A.S members including: Vernita Green, Budd, Elle Driver and Bill. Sofie wasn't able to tell only the location of Bill; which proofs the fact that Bill wasn't fully trusting even his best students. Fans theorize that Pretty Riki, was in fact young Bill, working as the main henchman for Boss Matsumoto or possibly as an assassin for hire; as they wore extraordinary lookalikes, in their features, knowledge of the martial arts and manner of dressing; However, this theory is extremely unlikely, but still possible. Deadly Viper Assassination Squad O-Ren was the most powerful member of the squad after Beatrix Kiddo; some might say that they wore equally strong in martial arts; which served as the factor of their close friendship. Beside O-Ren and Beatrix, a friendship wasn't developed between anyone in the entire squad. O-Ren was the only member of the squad who, left only because the group was already separated; Sofie Fatale Sofie Fatale was O-Ren's second in command, personal lawyer, translator and best friend. Because of her decency, Sofie was an expert speaker on French and Japanese languages which made her the perfect assistant for O-Ren. but beside the professional interest it is unclear how exactly is their friendship, with O-Ren that strong; It is known that Sofie was Bill's protégé (although she didn't knew any martial arts) and often assisted the D.V.A.S at their operations; including the Massacre at Two Pines... However the two most likely developed their friendship because of their Japanese heritages and their professionalism, but it's also possible that Bill Personally attached Sofie to O-Ren to assist her in her path as the yakuza boss and their friendship started from there... Sofie was loyal to O-Ren however and even admired her boss' doings; as she was seen smiling while translating O-Ren's sadistic speech to the Crime Council, after killing Boss Tanaka. Gogo Yubari Gogo was the most loyal and the most ruthless minion of O-Ren. Serving her mistress as a personal bodyguard, Gogo was seemingly harmless schoolgirl, but Despite her appearance the level of her madness and lust for blood was over the top... During the Showdown at the house of the blue leaves, Gogo was the only serious threat Beatrix and came even closer than her mistress, to killing her; But she failed and died from the hands of Beatrix, while protecting O-Ren. Crazy 88 The Crazy 88s wore O-Ren's personal clan of highly skilled fighters. But beside their loud name, it was established that the group sustained out of 44 members (45 if including Johnny Mo) and yet they wore all slayed by Beatrix Kiddo, while trying to protect their mistress. Beatrix Kiddo The relationship between two was extremely complicated; they most likely wore close friends, while working for the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. But during the Massacre at Two Pines, O-Ren was seen, taking a part in beating up her pregnant former friend and not showing any sort of emotion. But beside that, she was the only person, who honestly apologized to Beatrix for mocking her... The final fight between O-Ren Ishii and Beatrix Kiddo was in the snowy gardens of the House of Blue Leaves... O-Ren knew that Beatrix was tired, from defeating all of her subordinates, but she was still aware, about her opponent's rank and still used her scabbard, along with the sword as defense... The two trade comments and blows, but after O-ren was injured in her oot and finally weakend; The Bride killed her enemy, with horizontal slash, effectively removing O-Ren's scalp and starting her path of revenge, by scrolling the first name in her death list. Relatives O-Ren's father, was an (ethnically Japanese) American military soldier and extremely skilled hand-to-hand combatist; as he was seen killing and/or at least heavily injuring Boss Matsumoto's men completely armless, during their invasion into Ishii residence; however, Mr. Ishii was eventually killed by Matsumoto's most deadly minion - Pretty Riki, decapitated Mr. Ishii died, in front of her hiding daughter while whispering something unintelligible to her and after the final strike with katana into Mr. Ishii's head, O-Ren was scarred for life. Shortly after the death of Mr. Ishii, Boss Matsumoto himself grabbed O-Ren's mother (who was ethnically Han Chinese), borrowed Riki's katana and killed horrified Mrs. Ishii by stabbing her on her own bed. The drops of blood, wore soaked by mattress and slowly dropped on already scarred O-Ren's face. After the Ishiis wore dead, Matsumoto left the residence, which seconds later was put on fire. O-Ren sneaked out on time and watched her house being covered in flames; this symbolized O-Ren's inner flames of rage and lust for her vengeance, in the name of deceased parents. Appearances Kill Bill: Volume 1 * Chapter 2: The blood-splattered BRIDE (debut; flashback) * Chapter 3: The Origin of O-Ren * Chapter 5: Showdown at House of Blue Leaves (death) Kill Bill: Volume 2 * Chapter 7: The lonely grave of Paula Schulz (mention) * Ending credits Gallery O-ren-Ishi2.jpg O-RenPromo.jpg ythorn.jpg O-Ren Ishii.gif Tumblr n8iqpeby7v1rpxny2o1 500.gif O-rnw1.gif Trivia * O-Ren had dark blue eyes, like her father. * O-Ren's surname "Ishii" (石井) means - stone well, on Japanese. * O-Ren was developed from the character called Lady Snowblood from the movie with titular name. Lady Snowblood also was an assassin and shared with O-Ren her basic traits and manner of dressing. Also when O-Ren's scalp was ripped off, the soundtrack music was "Flower of Carnage" (Shura No Hana) - 1973, which was sang by Meiko Kaji; the portrayer of Lady Snowblood. * O-Ren was the only member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (except Bill) who was almost equally as strong as Beatrix; But she still lost the fight with her. * O-Ren's death was supposed to be, ironically - decapitation; but this script element was changed because, of her last lines; for more dramatic effect. Category:Characters Category:Deadly Viper Assassination Squad Category:Kill Bill characters Category:Asian characters Category:Gangsters Category:Female characters Category:Deceased characters